Apple Indeed Talking with Cable Operators About New TV Product, But Launch Not Imminent

Following up on yesterday's report suggesting that a launch of a new Apple television product may be "imminent" based on cable operators assessing infrastructure needs to support such a device, AllThingsD notes that Apple is indeed talking with cable operators but that characterizing any launch as "imminent" would be premature.

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For starters, Apple has already steered analysts away from the notion that it will have something to say about a TV solution soon. More important: If Apple were close to launching a new service, it would almost certainly be in touch with TV programmers about new arrangements, and we haven't heard anything along those lines.

In other words, there are still a lot of missing pieces here, and while a major cable provider running what-if scenarios on a rumored Apple product is certainly interesting, it's not necessarily a trumpet fanfare announcing its imminent arrival.

Apple continues to refer to its existing Apple TV set-top box business as a "hobby", even as sales doubled year-over-year to 5 million units in fiscal 2012. More ambitious plans for either a new set-top box supporting live television or an Internet-connected television set are reportedly being slowed by difficult content negotiations.

I am 100% in love with my Apple TV and I really don't see why they need to make an actual television. Super charge the Apple TV with the option to use it with cable and give it an amazing interface, and this whole profitability issue goes away. Let all the people already in the game make the TV hardware. Apple TV would turn ANY TV into an iTV. Let Samsung and Sony and Vizio fight over the profit scraps in the TV biz.

A buddy of mine has a Samsung Smart TV and hates the interface and buggy apps so much that he bought an Apple TV and uses that on the Samsung TV. He loves it.

So if you can't tell, I think the smart move is to do a grand re-launching of Apple TV. I will buy one for every TV I own, and I think others would too.

I wish these stupid rumors would quit already. One day Apple's ready to shake up TV, the next it's not happening any time soon. I wish these stupid Wall Street analysts would **** for a change. Maybe that would keep the stock from dropping like a rock every day.

__________________"Terrorism is horrible and must be stopped. All of us must do everything we can do to stop this craziness. These people shouldn't exist. They should be eliminated."— Tim Cook 

21.5 Apple TV 2k 27" Apple TV 3-4k 42" 5k you get the drift. Unless these TV are reasonably priced ill stick to Samsung TV which are great. The premium on a Computer is fine but on a TV. I refused to be mugged just for a fruit logo. Sorry folks.

For macs it's fine cos windows is rubbish or last time I was using XP it was. TV there are plenty of decent makes Anout.

I am 100% in love with my Apple TV and I really don't see why they need to make an actual television. Super charge the Apple TV with the option to use it with cable and give it an amazing interface, and this whole profitability issue goes away. Let all the people already in the game make the TV hardware. Apple TV would turn ANY TV into an iTV. Let Samsung and Sony and Vizio fight over the profit scraps in the TV biz.

A buddy of mine has a Samsung Smart TV and hates the interface and buggy apps so much that he bought an Apple TV and uses that on the Samsung TV. He loves it.

So if you can't tell, I think the smart move is to do a grand re-launching of Apple TV. I will buy one for every TV I own, and I think others would too.

Without discussing the quality of Apple and Samsung products, the fact is that there is one very expensive item (the TV) and one very cheap item (the AppleTV box), and while the expensive item is responsible for enjoying the picture and the sound, the cheap item is responsible for enjoying the UI. They should be kept separate. As your friend will testify.

I am 100% in love with my Apple TV and I really don't see why they need to make an actual television. Super charge the Apple TV with the option to use it with cable and give it an amazing interface, and this whole profitability issue goes away. Let all the people already in the game make the TV hardware. Apple TV would turn ANY TV into an iTV. Let Samsung and Sony and Vizio fight over the profit scraps in the TV biz.

A buddy of mine has a Samsung Smart TV and hates the interface and buggy apps so much that he bought an Apple TV and uses that on the Samsung TV. He loves it.

So if you can't tell, I think the smart move is to do a grand re-launching of Apple TV. I will buy one for every TV I own, and I think others would too.

Agreed. I can see the market for an actual TV but you're right they can make an awesome device that makes any TV into an Apple product lol. Also they all get their parts from the same places essentially. I wouldn't be an early adopter for an apple television

The reason we have all these different types of set to boxes is because there is no clear standard defined - and no - Apple wont be able to bring out a new set-top box and force all the networks to use THEIR standard as there is no incentive to do so. Other than playing iTunes content, what can an Apple set-top box or TV offer over a TiVo box for example? Sure, it'll have a fancy UI, but feature wise there's really nothing that can be added that would make everyone want it the same way they did with the iPhone/Pad.

If it is a TV, you can guarantee it'll be expensive, and why bother? Whoopee doo, a TV that can play iTunes content. I'd rather spend $25 on a RaspberryPi with XBMC (which also has Airplay).

The only way for Apple to get the ball running on the AppleTV is for Profession & NCAA teams sell "Subscriptions" to Teams and the AppleTV would start flying off the shelf, i am full believer in this. It would fly faster if Apple made deals with "Football" clubs across Europe & elsewhere. It would be even better if a fan from another country could also buy that Teams "subscription".

Apple is never going to release a new iMac. Apple just showed a concept they scrapped at the presentation to troll all of you. Please never speak of the iMac on a non-iMac article again. Get a freaking grip on reality.

I'm curious to see what new product will be introduced before WWDC next year then.

Aside from the Mac Pro, all Macs have been updated and won't be updated again until Haswell in Q3 2013.

The iPhone, iPad, iPad mini and iPods all have been recently updated as well.

Aside from OS X 10.9's announcement I wonder what to expect in the first half of 2013, I doubt Apple would leave such a huge gap without any new products. They usually time product launches very carefully to make sure products get released evenly throughout the year.

The only way for Apple to get the ball running on the AppleTV is for Profession & NCAA teams sell "Subscriptions" to Teams and the AppleTV would start flying off the shelf, i am full believer in this. It would fly faster if Apple made deals with "Football" clubs across Europe & elsewhere. It would be even better if a fan from another country could also buy that Teams "subscription".

Not going to happen. European TV is VERY different from that in the states, Football is all locked up by Mr Murdoch, like most sports and major broadcasts. In the UK we have 4 choices: Digital Terrestrial (e.g Freeview, BT Vision, etc), Freesat (basically freeview over Satellite) Virgin Media (aka Cable)or Sky (Satellite).

There isnt anywhere for Apple to 'slot in'. Virgin are in partnership with Tivo - a long term contract, Freeview allows anyone to create a set top box (there is only about 30 channels, pretty mediocre ones at that) and Sky use a custom system.

A very similar system operates throughout Europe, and Cable isnt all that popular in many places as there just arent the cable lines in place.

Apple TV cant really succeed if its restricted to one type of input. Obviously internet-based streaming would be ideal, but again, there is no way it will happen. The ISP's were up in arms when BBC iPlayer launched, and demanded that it was either taken off line, or the BBC paid the ISP's extra cash. In the end, most ISP's ended up throttling it.